Billboard Challenge, Part 1

June 22, 2012

There are several ways to solve this problem. If you have access to a DNS server, you could extract all the 10-digit.com names, test each for primality, and look at each one until you find the likely solution. Or you could find the digits of e at any of several places on the web and test each successive 10-digits until you find a prime.

I’m falling in love with Python. This takes a while to run because it doesn’t evaluate lazily, but that’s a consequence of my structure phobia.

from euler import prime
l = "718281828459045235360287471352662497757247093699959574966967627724076630353547594571382178525166427427466391932003059921817413596629043572900334295260595630738132328627943490763233829880753195251019011573834187930702154089149934884167509244761460668082264800168477411853742345442437107539077744992069551702761838606261331384583000752044933826560297606737113200709328709127443747047230696977209310141692836819025515108657463772111252389784425056953696770785449969967946864454905987931636889230098793127736178215424999229576351482208269895193668033182528869398496465105820939239829488793320362509443117301238197068416140397019837679320683282376464804295311802328782509819455815301756717361332069811250996181881593041690351598888519345807273866738589422879228499892086805825749279610484198444363463244968487560233624827041978623209002160990235304369941849146314093431738143640546253152096183690888707016768396424378140592714563549061303107208510383750510115747704171898610687396965521267154688957035035402123407849819334321068170121005627880235193033224745015853904730419957777093503660416997329725088687696640355570716226844716256079882651787134195124665201030592123667719432527867539855894489697096409754591856956380236370162112047742722836489613422516445078182442352948636372141740238893441247963574370263755294448337998016125492278509257782562092622648326277933386566481627725164019105900491644998289315056604725802778631864155195653244258698294695930801915298721172556347546396447910145904090586298496791287406870504895858671747985466775757320568128845920541334053922000113786300945560688166740016984205580403363795"
print list(int(l[i:i+10]) for i in range(0,len(l)-10) if prime(int(l[i:i+10])))[0]